University of Iowa, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, United States; University of Iowa, Iowa Neuroscience Institute, United States.
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Department of Psychiatry, United States.
Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2021 Aug;50:100969. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2021.100969. Epub 2021 May 31.
Intrinsic, unconstrained neural activity exhibits rich spatial, temporal, and spectral organization that undergoes continuous refinement from childhood through adolescence. The goal of this study was to investigate the development of theta (4-8 Hertz) and alpha (8-12 Hertz) oscillations from early childhood to adulthood (years 3-24), as these oscillations play a fundamental role in cognitive function. We analyzed eyes-open, resting-state EEG data from 96 participants to estimate genuine oscillations separately from the aperiodic (1/f) signal. We examined age-related differences in the aperiodic signal (slope and offset), as well as the peak frequency and power of the dominant posterior oscillation. For the aperiodic signal, we found that both the aperiodic slope and offset decreased with age. For the dominant oscillation, we found that peak frequency, but not power, increased with age. Critically, early childhood (ages 3-7) was characterized by a dominance of theta oscillations in posterior electrodes, whereas peak frequency of the dominant oscillation in the alpha range increased between ages 7 and 24. Furthermore, theta oscillations displayed a topographical transition from dominance in posterior electrodes in early childhood to anterior electrodes in adulthood. Our results provide a quantitative description of the development of theta and alpha oscillations.
内在的、不受约束的神经活动表现出丰富的空间、时间和频谱组织，从儿童期到青春期不断得到精细调整。本研究的目的是从儿童期到成年期（3 至 24 岁）研究θ（4-8 赫兹）和α（8-12 赫兹）振荡的发展，因为这些振荡在认知功能中起着基础性作用。我们分析了 96 名参与者的睁眼静息状态 EEG 数据，以分别从非周期性（1/f）信号中估计真实的振荡。我们研究了与年龄相关的非周期性信号（斜率和偏移）以及主导后向振荡的峰值频率和功率的差异。对于非周期性信号，我们发现非周期性斜率和偏移都随年龄的增长而降低。对于主导振荡，我们发现峰值频率而不是功率随年龄的增长而增加。至关重要的是，儿童早期（3-7 岁）的特征是后电极的θ振荡占主导地位，而在 7 至 24 岁之间，α 频段主导振荡的峰值频率增加。此外，θ振荡从前额电极在儿童早期的主导地位向成年期的主导地位呈现出地形学上的转变。我们的研究结果提供了对θ和α振荡发展的定量描述。
